Trump-era EPA Meddled in PFAS Science, Agency Watchdog Finds

In the final days of the Trump administration, a political appointee at the EPA ordered a last-minute review of the hazards of a “forever chemical,” triggering delay, confusion, and significant changes to a nearly final work product, the agency’s inspector general found in a Friday report.

By suddenly replacing single toxicity values with less-protective toxicity ranges for perfluorobutanesulfonic acid (PFBS), the Environmental Protection Agency exposed the public to health risks and broke with its standard review and clearance process, according to the agency’s Office of Inspector General.

PFBS is a replacement for perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, which is one of the most well-studied members of a group of chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

The findings underscore often-repeated claims that EPA political officials, under former President Donald Trump, consistently meddled in agency science to reach desired outcomes. They also echo conclusions drawn by the EPA in February 2021, when the agency alleged “political interference as well as infringement of authorship and the scientific independence of the authors’ conclusions.”

Because the EPA had no procedure in place to consider comments after the intra-agency review period, the last-minute review from the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics delayed the publication of the PFBS toxicity assessment, the inspector general wrote.

The inspector general said it had no evidence that the public had relied on the altered version of the PFBS toxicity assessment. But because it was effective for three weeks, “it is possible that parties charged with cleaning up PFBS contamination could have selected less stringent value,” putting human health at risk.

The watchdog also said it found no evidence that EPA scientists had been coerced or intimidated.

The report made a series of recommendations to the EPA, including clarifying if and when comments about scientific disagreement can be expressed, making clear if and when toxicity ranges are acceptable, updating internal policies to require additional quality assurance reviews for EPA products, and strengthening the agency’s culture of scientific integrity, transparency, and accountability.

In response, the Biden-led EPA agreed that political interference had happened and that it was wrong. But the agency also said it had “subtle but important points of disagreement” with the inspector general’s characterization of the events—broadly asserting that the interference was a violation of the agency’s scientific integrity policy, rather than a deviation from established agency processes.

Last month, the American Federation of Government Employees announced it had ratified a new contract with the EPA, winning scientific integrity protections for the first time.

Those provisions are critical to the union because many career employees fear a second Trump presidency will lead to more of the distortions and silencing of scientific work they alleged during his first term.

Under the new four-year deal, EPA staffers can report scientific misconduct to the agency and can’t be subject to retribution, reprisal, or retaliation for having done so. A grievance can be escalated to an independent arbiter to determine whether science has been undermined.

In 2023, a White House working group released the first-ever mandatory set of instructions aimed at standardizing and strengthening the way federal agencies handle science.

More than 200 abuses of science were committed during the Trump presidency, creating a hostile environment that drove hundreds of veteran scientists out of government, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.